T RANSITION TO C OLLEGE PRESENTED BY D R. D EBORAH A NNE B ANKER A NGELO S TATE U NIVERSITY

Y OU MAY ASK WHY I PRESENT THIS TO YOU ….. Please remember that many, many of the individuals that your students will encounter at the postsecondary level will have had absolutely NO training in special education or special education issues. Unfortunately, our K-12 folks do not necessarily know what documentation the postsecondary folks require for special needs students; and conversely the postsecondary folks don’t always know how to read the K-12 paperwork.

Most postsecondary institutions are using the AHEAD (Association on Higher Education and Disability) guidelines for documentation. Those guidelines can be found at: primarily Section III

T WO I MPORTANT C OMPONENTS OF THE G UIDELINES Comprehensive Evaluation Documentation Accommodations may be granted (sometimes they will not be granted) and modifications will never be granted

C OMPREHENSIVE E VALUATION D OCUMENTATION Disability documentation must verify the nature and extent of the impairment The credentials of the examiner/evaluator must be valid for the condition being diagnosed Must be in accordance with current professional standards and techniques Must clearly address the need for all of the student's specific accommodation requests

I N ADDITION : Documentation should support the need for services based on the individual's current level of functioning in the educational setting. Students requesting accommodations for the manifestations of multiple disabilities must provide evidence of all such conditions.

A CCOMMODATIONS AT THE P OSTSECONDARY L EVEL Specific accommodations are required when necessary to enable the student to access his or her education. Cf. PGA Tour v. Martin, 532 U.S. 661 (2001) It is not uncommon for evaluators to recommend a range of accommodations and services for a particular student

I T IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER Private schools are not required to provide any sort of accommodations for students with disabilities. Public schools must provide accommodation services to students with disabilities, but it is at their discretion as to which accommodations are made. Private schools which receive any sort of federal funding must provide some sort of reasonable accommodations (up to them to decide what “reasonable” means)

W HAT HAPPENS THEN ? The postsecondary provider will need to sort through these recommendations with the student to determine what accommodations are indeed necessary This is to avoid giving the student an unfair advantage over his or her classmates or promoting accommodations that could substantially modify a program’s standards.

I N OTHER WORDS : The documentation must be very clear as to: Qualifications of the evaluator(s) Exactly what the diagnosis is (no weasel words) Specifically what accommodations the student needs and why (students will not receive modifications) A majority of postsecondary institutions require that a complete evaluation has been done within the last three years from the date of enrollment at their institution

C OLLEGE A DMISSIONS E XAMS SAT Requirements for documentation to receive accommodations are located at: /guide/guidelines Students must have evaluations within: 5 years for LD 12 months for ED/BD 2 years for VI 12 months for OHI

ACT Requirements for documentation to receive accommodations are located at: Students must have evaluations within: 3 years of the date of the request for accommodations for any disability